5:1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel. 5:2“The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.” 5:3For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” 5:4For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live; 5:5but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. 5:6Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. 5:7You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth: 5:8seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name, 5:9who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. 5:10They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. 5:11Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. 5:12For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts. 5:13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. 5:14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say. 5:15Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” 5:16Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing. 5:17In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh. 5:18“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light. 5:19As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him. 5:20Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? 5:21I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies. 5:22Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals. 5:23Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 5:24But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream. 5:25“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? 5:26You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. 5:27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.
6:1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come! 6:2Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border? 6:3Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; 6:4Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall; 6:5who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; 6:6who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. 6:7Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive; and the feasting and lounging will end. 6:8“The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it. 6:9It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. 6:10“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’ 6:11“For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits. 6:12Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness; 6:13you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’ 6:14For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies; “and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”
7:1Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest. 7:2When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” 7:3Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh. 7:4Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. 7:5Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” 7:6Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh. 7:7Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 7:8Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 7:9The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 7:11For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’” 7:12Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 7:13but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!” 7:14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; 7:15and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 7:16Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’ 7:17Therefore Yahweh says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”
8:1Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 8:2He said, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 8:3The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh. “The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence. 8:4Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, 8:5Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; 8:6that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’” 8:7Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works. 8:8Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt. 8:9It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day. 8:11Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing Yahweh’s words. 8:12They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word, and will not find it. 8:13In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst. 8:14Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives;’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’ they will fall, and never rise up again.”
9:1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape. 9:2Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down. 9:3Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 9:4Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good. 9:5For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, is he who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt. 9:6It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth; Yahweh is his name. 9:7Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 9:8Behold, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says Yahweh. 9:9“For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth. 9:10All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake nor meet us.’ 9:11In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; 9:12that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this. 9:13“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. 9:14I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit. 9:15I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says Yahweh your God.
Obadiah
1:1The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Arise, and let’s rise up against her in battle.
Jonah
1:1Now Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 1:2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.” 1:3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. 1:4But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up. 1:5Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and he was laying down, and was fast asleep. 1:6So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.” 1:7They all said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 1:8Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?” 1:9He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.” 1:10Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them. 1:11Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy. 1:12He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.” 1:13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 1:14Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, “We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you.” 1:15So they took up Jonah, and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. 1:16Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh, and made vows. 1:17Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2:1Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish’s belly. 2:2He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. 2:3For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. 2:4I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ 2:5The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head. 2:6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God. 2:7“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple. 2:8Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 2:9But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh.” 2:10Then Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.
3:1Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, 3:2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.” 3:3So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. 3:4Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” 3:5The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. 3:6The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 3:7He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 3:8but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. 3:9Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?” 3:10God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.
4:1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 4:2He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. 4:3Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4:4Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 4:5Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city. 4:6Yahweh God prepared a vine, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine. 4:7But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine, so that it withered. 4:8When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 4:9God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.” 4:10Yahweh said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. 4:11Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”
Micah
1:1Yahweh’s word that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 1:2Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 1:3For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 1:4The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place. 1:5“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem? 1:6Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. 1:7All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.” 1:8For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls. 1:9For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 1:10Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust. 1:11Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection. 1:12For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem. 1:13Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 1:14Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 1:15I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam. 1:16Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
2:1Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2:2They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 2:3Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk haughtily; for it is an evil time. 2:4In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’” 2:5Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in Yahweh’s assembly. 2:6“Don’t prophesy!” They prophesy. “Don’t prophesy about these things. Disgrace won’t overtake us.” 2:7Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: “Is Yahweh’s Spirit angry? Are these his doings? Don’t my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?” 2:8But lately my people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle. 2:9You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever. 2:10Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction. 2:11If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies: “I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink”; he would be the prophet of this people. 2:12I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the middle of their pasture; they will swarm with people. 2:13He who breaks open the way goes up before them. They break through the gate, and go out. And their king passes on before them, with Yahweh at their head.
3:1I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice? 3:2You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; 3:3who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron. 3:4Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.” 3:5Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him: 3:6“Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them. 3:7The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God.” 3:8But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin. 3:9Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity. 3:10They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 3:11Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.” 3:12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
4:1But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of Yahweh’s temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it. 4:2Many nations will go and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem; 4:3and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more. 4:4But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one will make them afraid: For the mouth of Yahweh of Armies has spoken. 4:5Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever. 4:6“In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted; 4:7and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever.” 4:8You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. 4:9Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail? 4:10Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. 4:11Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion.” 4:12But they don’t know the thoughts of Yahweh, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor. 4:13Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you will beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain to Yahweh, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.
5:1Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek. 5:2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times. 5:3Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel. 5:4He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God: and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth. 5:5He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land, and when he marches through our fortresses, then we will raise against him seven shepherds, and eight leaders of men. 5:6They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its gates. He will deliver us from the Assyrian, when he invades our land, and when he marches within our border. 5:7The remnant of Jacob will be among many peoples, like dew from Yahweh, like showers on the grass, that don’t wait for man, nor wait for the sons of men. 5:8The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, among many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no one to deliver. 5:9Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries, and let all of your enemies be cut off. 5:10“It will happen in that day”, says Yahweh, “that I will cut off your horses out from among you, and will destroy your chariots. 5:11I will cut off the cities of your land, and will tear down all your strongholds. 5:12I will destroy witchcraft from your hand; and you shall have no soothsayers. 5:13I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out from among you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands. 5:14I will uproot your Asherah poles out from among you; and I will destroy your cities. 5:15I will execute vengeance in anger, and wrath on the nations that didn’t listen.”
6:1Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say. 6:2Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. 6:3My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me! 6:4For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 6:5My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of Yahweh.” 6:6How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 6:7Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 6:8He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? 6:9Yahweh’s voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: “Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it. 6:10Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed? 6:11Shall I be pure with dishonest scales, and with a bag of deceitful weights? 6:12Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech. 6:13Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins. 6:14You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Your humiliation will be within you. You will store up, but not save; and that which you save I will give up to the sword. 6:15You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine. 6:16For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of Ahab’s house. You walk in their counsels, that I may make you a ruin, and her inhabitants a hissing; And you will bear the reproach of my people.”
7:1Misery is mine! Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vineyard: There is no cluster of grapes to eat. My soul desires to eat the early fig. 7:2The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net. 7:3Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together. 7:4The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion. 7:5Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth! 7:6For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. 7:7But as for me, I will look to Yahweh. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. 7:8Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me. 7:9I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light. I will see his righteousness. 7:10Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God? Then my enemy will see me and will cover her shame. Now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets. 7:11A day to build your walls— In that day, he will extend your boundary. 7:12In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain. 7:13Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. 7:14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture land, let them feed; in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 7:15“As in the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.” 7:16The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf. 7:17They will lick the dust like a serpent. Like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their dens. They will come with fear to Yahweh our God, and will be afraid because of you. 7:18Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness. 7:19He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 7:20You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.